ADVICE IF YOU ARE DRIVING BETWEEN SAN DIEGO AND LOS ANGELES

I had to drive to LA yesterday, but my shop (uh, a one person operation!!) was featured on BuzzFeed yesterday (omg!!!! yay!!!! but also 😱) so we had to come back home so I could fill orders!! we left San Diego at 3:30pm yesterday. we were in LA for less than 5 hours. I realized a few things.

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If there is daylight, take the 15

The 5 between San Diego and LA has mystery traffic during the day, always. even at 3pm on a Saturday. San Diego to LA on the 15, however, is always fast and takes exactly 2h20 every time. Not too bad. Way better than sitting in traffic hating life.

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if you take the 5, do not leave hungry

unless you can wait until you're in a territory with In N Out or something. but that long stretch around Camp Pendleton is a long one, and all there is for that are two weird boob shaped power plants and beautiful open space.

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If you ignore my advice, look for buffalo

apparently there are wild buffalo roaming the acreage of camp Pendleton.

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if you take the toll road through the Orange Curtain, pre-register your license plate

On the 73, they got rid of their toll booths and it's very confusing. go online and pre register your license plate with your credit card and rest easy.

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Pre-load your phone with a book or podcast

I will never understand why you can't buy audiobooks from the audible app but need a computer to do so. It's like the people who run that site know about the Internet and know that it's a big part of their business's function but have never used it.

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Don't leave LA after midnight if you have a very long drive ahead of you

oops. I did. so tired

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Text someone and let them know you arrived home safely

or they will assume you died. you can text a stranger this information if you have no friends.

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Better yet, use the "share my location" function

do you know about this? it's basically a marauder's map from Harry Potter and your iPhone lets you do this.